Carbon footprints of the horticultural products strawberries, asparagus, roses and orchids in Germany

Global climate change problem can be linked to production efficiency and everyday consumption patterns by calculating the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from each product. This is usually referred to as product carbon footprint (PCF). Only limited information is available about the PCF of German horticultural products. We measured the cradle-to-grave PCF of German strawberries, asparagus, roses and orchids in different production systems and compared it to the PCF of the same products grown in other countries. For the production and customer stage we collected primary data, for the comparison with products in other countries we used literature data. The results showed that the average consumer stage constitutes 3e71% of the PCF, the best case consumer scenario 1e39% and the worst case 60e99%. The consumer shopping trip was a hotspot in all analysed systems where a private car was used. Electricity for production, fuel use for soil management, and cooking and washing dishes were also among the most often identified hotspots. German open field strawberries perform better, German open field roses and asparagus are on the similar level with the same products produced abroad. However, asparagus transported by plane, and strawberries and roses grown in greenhouses have several times higher PCF regardless of the producing country. Consumers as well as producers are responsible for reducing the climate impact of horticultural products. Shopping trip on foot or by bike and using renewable energy can reduce the PCF significantly. We recommend extending the analysis to the life cycle assessment or product environmental footprint to consider more indicators to identify which products are less harmful to the environment.